1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine for filling jars with pieces of vegetables or fruits, and in particular quartered pickles. The machine includes a conveyor belt which carries jars incrementally past filling stations at which the pieces of vegetables are fed into the jars. The pieces of vegetables or fruits are delivered by a conveyor belt to cutting stations, where they are cut into pieces, and are then brought to the filling station.
2. Prior Art
A machine of this kind, in the form of a pickle feeding machine, is known from German Pat. No. 21 50 368. In this machine the pickles are transported in a horizontal position, then tilted into an upright position and pushed from top to bottom through cutting stations. In order to feed them into jars delivered upright on the jar conveyor belt in such a manner that the cut sides face the outside, the pieces cut in the cutting stations are guided along coiled guideways and thereby rotated about their own longitudinal axis.
It is very important for the cut sides of the pickle pieces resting on the inside of the jar to be visible from the outside, because it is then possible to tell whether the pieces are still firm and have a fresh appearance.
The known apparatus functions satisfactorily only when the pickles always have a very specific and unchanging diameter. This diameter must always be at a certain, never-changing ratio to the diameter of the jar. Then the pickle pieces, fed into the jar in an upright position, support one another along the circumference of the jar in a sort of "bridge effect", instead of collapsing inward again like pick-up sticks. Additionally, the inside of the jar, inside the outer ring of pickle pieces, must be filled by hand.